Empty car parks and a lack of foot traffic were in abundance at times over the weekend as stores, cafes and pubs experienced the first few days of a potentially very quiet period.

Hepburn Shire Council mayor Licia Kokocinski said while the quiet is set to be a difficult adjustment for most businesses, this is what has to happen to keep the region safe.

"Things have quieted down quite considerably," she said.

"It seems like people have returned back to their places of residence and I hope they stay there. I just think it's really important that people remain close to their homes. We're hoping that things will calm down quite a lot.

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"Of course it's going to have an effect on businesses and the economy and that's something we'll have to grapple with. It will be quite a serious issue that we have to prepare for.

"Our concern is the health of our community, to make sure the virus count remains at two as it was back in March."

One business that felt the pinch at the weekend was the Royal Daylesford Hotel, which saw all of its accommodation bookings, for what would have been the final day of school holidays, cancelled.

Publican Cameron Stone said the cancellations came as a blow to the business, which is now having to rely heavily on visitors from other areas of regional Victoria.

"We lost all of our bookings for the weekend which obviously is a pretty major blow," he said.

"Getting that support from other areas in regional Victoria is really important, we definitely saw a few more people from those areas at the weekend."

These sentiments were echoed by owner of Buster McGee men's clothing store Alex Hancocks, who added he noticed a lot of visitors from some other areas of regional Victoria over the weekend.

"I noticed a lot more people coming up from Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat and enjoying the town being less busy," he said.

"They're the only people that can come at the moment so they're very important. We obviously rely on tourism as a town very heavily so their support is crucial."

One thing that remains unknown is if any people who own a second property in the region who usually reside in Melbourne have decided to move to the region during the six week lockdown.

Cr Kokocinski added it was a factor she was aware of but was unsure of anyone doing it currently.

"That was an issue that was brought to our attention back in March and April when the first lockdown took place," she continued.

"If they have already moved here and they stay here you can't really stop them, if they're here, they're here."

Wendouree MP Juliana Addison said when it comes to people potentially moving to their second residence for the lockdown period, they should simply remain at their primary residence.

"We are calling on all Victorians to remain at their primary residence," she said.

"We know that there is a lot of infection in certain sectors of the community and we encourage people to live at their primary residence to reside at their primary residence and not be moving away from that.

"If your primary residence is in Daylesford, stay in Daylesford. If your primary residence is in Ballarat, stay in Ballarat."

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